Is this pittosporum dying?

Hi. I have an established tree which I'm told is a pittosporum. It has now only got a few leaves at the very end of some branches except for a slightly bigger area at the top. The smaller branches (8mm down) are breaking off.

There is a photo here: Sick Pittosporum Tree

What could be causing this and is there any treatment? Thanks

 

Hi Roger and welcome. I'm not sure that I can help though. I have a small pittosporum shrub which has been looking poorly for some time which I have moved from its original planting spot to another and is now looking a little more perky. I appreciate that you cannot do this with a tree though :D My plant books are little help they just say that they don't like cold and need well drained soil, could it be the weather? On another note we had a cherry tree that looked like that last year (it too was mature) and is now unfortunately no more, we believed that died from old age. As I said not much help but I'm sure some one else may have other theories.

 

Thanks Celia for taking the trouble to reply. No other ideas have been forthcoming so I'll enquire elsewhere. Perhaps a tree surgeon. A great shame if it has to be cut down as it's the main feature in that part of the garden.

It's surprising how these things creep up on you - I only really noticed something was wrong after pruning an vigourous, thickly leaved pittosporum in another garden!
We too have an old Cheery tree but it's doing fine!
Roger.